Bloomberg Slovenian President Borut Pahor has one obstacle on his path to re-election: a comedian-turned-mayor who vows to shake up the political establishment and replace the head of the central bank. Pahor, a former Social Democrat prime minister, is set to win Sunday’s runoff with more than 56 percent of vote, a poll by Episcenter conducted for the Delo newspaper …

“Do we have any historical evidence that lowering tax rates, particularly among the richest strata, generates economic growth, as the Republicans always predict? Has this ever worked?” —A reader The answer is ‘no.’ As Congress tackles “tax reform,” we really don’t have conclusive historical evidence of the relationship between tax rates and economic growth. To be sure, studies abound, but …

The latest US government report on climate change illustrates how expensive the phenomenon can be: It estimates that more frequent flooding, more violent hurricanes and more intense wildfires, among other things, have cost the country $1.1 trillion since 1980. What’s particularly striking, though, is how much the report and others like it are still missing. For two decades, researchers have …

Britain’s housing market is vanishing before our eyes. It’s not that prices are in free-fall — so far — but the number of transactions actually completing is dwindling fast. The slowdown in London has worsened sharply since June. Houses of all prices have been hit, the data from the Land Registry show. By September, the drought had hit hardest those …

When it comes to ethics, appearances matter — as Wilbur Ross is learning the hard way. ‘Appearance,’ Plato observed, ‘tyrannizes over truth.’ President Donald Trump’s administration should keep that in mind when attending to its latest conflict-of-interest scandal. According to news reports based on leaks from a Bermuda law firm, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross did not disclose business ties with …

In the annals of economic experimentation, India’s cash ban will stand out. Not because it was ill-advised, poorly executed or unsuccessful in achieving its original aims. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to outlaw 86% of his country’s currency a year ago today was all those things. What made it remarkable, though, was the way it flew against the zeitgeist. While …

In Africa, the plastic shopping bag is an endangered species. Last week, tiny Benin became the latest African country to restrict the import, production and even use of such bags. It’s not messing around, either. Following in the steps of Rwanda (where plastic bag importers are publicly shamed) and Kenya (where bags users can be subject to four years in …

Let’s not mince words: Eight months after Snapchat went public, the company is a disaster. Parent company Snap Inc. turned in its third earnings report as a public company, and for the third time its shares tanked when both revenue and user growth were disappointing. Snapchat also disclosed it would change the fundamental character of its app—the sole significant revenue …

Bloomberg The components in Apple Inc.’s new iPhone X cost $115 more than the guts of the iPhone 8 due to its pricey new screen and facial recognition scanner, according to an analysis by IHS Markit Inc. The total bill of materials for the base model iPhone X with 64 gigabytes of storage is $370.25, according to IHS’s report, excluding …

Bloomberg Zynga Inc. wants to be the go-to place for mobile card games. The San Francisco-based online gaming pioneer is acquiring the copyrights for mobile card game business of Turkish game designer Peak Games for $100 million in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter. The Peak business is profitable and will add to earnings, Zynga Chief Executive …